A compelling, and important social and literary document about ten British writers of note: - Brian Aldiss - Paul Bailey - John Berger - Malcolm Bradbury - Dick Davis - John Fowles - Barry Hines, - Donall Mac Amhlaigh - Roger McGough - Peter Vansittart Why do authors write? What fuels their passion to create? And how do background, childhood, and early experiences shape the way they see the world? Reading this book is like spending time in the company of these authors, and each section is ...

Nigel Gray has breathed new life into an almost extinct literary form, the epistolatory novel. The time is 1988/1989. Adrian is trapped in Thatcher's Britain. Harri has flown to a new life in Australia. The contrast between the old world and the new is sharply drawn. The protagonists come alive in a very contemporary way, warts, muddle, desires, anxieties, jokes, differences and all. Full of contradictions, they show at times great insight and intelligence as well as revealing an immense c...

First Published in 2017. This book was created as a result of the anger the author when he first encountered the arguments of a school of economic historians who claim that there was no Great Depression in Britain between the wars. Broadly, they suggest that while some traditional industries were badly affected, new ones like man-made fibres and electricity supply rose to prosperity. The gross national product increased over the period, and many people became steadily more affluent. Radio ...

A powerful account of how one family, grieving for the loss of their daughter, is hounded then haunted by gross media intrusion.When teenager Cassie Mallion goes missing one hot summer's day in the Lake District her family find themselves in the midst of a media feeding frenzy. Years later as the extent of illegal media activity emerges they must face fresh grief.This ebook short also includes an extended extract from Cath Staincliffe's acclaimed novel, The Kindest Thing.

The sequel to Jennifer Worth's New York Times bestselling memoir and the basis for the PBS series Call the MidwifeWhen twenty-two-year-old Jennifer Worth, from a comfortable middle-class upbringing, went to work as a midwife in the direst section of postwar London, she not only delivered hundreds of babies and touched many lives, she also became the neighborhood's most vivid chronicler. Woven into the ongoing tales of her life in the East End are ...

Phizzwhizzing new cover look and branding for the World's NUMBER ONE Storyteller!BOY, Roald Dahl's bestselling autobiography, is full of hilarious anecdotes about his childhood and school days, illustrated by Quentin Blake.As a boy, all sorts of unusual things happened to Roald Dahl. There was the time he and four school friends got their revenge on beastly Mrs Prachett in her sweet shop.There are stories of holidays in fishing boats, African adventures and t...

Separated from her true love at the age of 18, Liz dreamt of the day he would return to marry her, but fate had other plans. Thirty-seven years later, Liz answers the telephone to hear a voice from the past that still has the power to stop her in her tracks. A true story of love lost and found, this personal memoir journeys across continents and decades to relate the details of the couple's original love affair and their reunion years later. Poignant and romantic, this story is a testament...

"A mystery that touches the heart, with characters caught in a world that's harsh but trembles with tender emotions. A beautiful story."JAMES NAUGHTIE, BBC Radio 4When the door opened and he came out, there came with him the stench of a dead thing, the sweet, sulphurous, warm, rotten chicken smell that only ever comes from unburied flesh.A dead body is found in a locked house. It has been stabbed in a frenzy, the hands and feet bound, the skull smashed, fals...

I was born in a tenement flat in the East End of London in the year in which Queen Victoria died.'FOUR MEALS FOR FOURPENCE is Grace Foakes's memories of her girlhood in Wapping in the early 1900s. With a child's uncluttered eye, she describes the small details - shopping in the market, men waiting for work at the dock gates, the rituals of washday, the sights, sounds and smells of the old East End of London. She also describes the fear - of illness, of unemployment, of the workhous...

Mr Edgar Finchley, unmarried clerk, aged 45, is told to take a holiday for the first time in his life. He decides to go to the seaside. But Fate has other plans in store…From his abduction by a cheerful crook, to his smuggling escapade off the south coast, the timid but plucky Mr Finchley is plunged into a series of the most astonishing and extraordinary adventures.His rural adventure takes him gradually westward through the English country...

Already a bestseller, this is a wonderfully entertaining collection of Alan Bennett's prose writings. Writing Home brings together diaries, reminiscences and reviews to give us a unique and unforgettable portrait of one of England's leading playwrights. As a memoir it covers the production of his very first play, Forty Years On, which starred John Gieldgud. His television series 'Talking Heads' has become a modern-day classic; as part of the 1960s revue 'Beyond the Fringe...

Queen Victoria was the ultimate Victorian, and she was not amused. Luckily YOU will be splitting your sides - because the prim and proper Victorians were actually a jolly naughty bunch!